For the new $2.2 billion Transbay Transit Center in downtown San Francisco, it’s the gondola that will carry visitors three floors from the entry plaza on Mission Street to the three-block-long rooftop garden. It turns out, the gondola won’t be ready for the Aug. 11 public open house.

Transbay Joint Powers Authority spokeswoman Chistine Falvey put the blame on Boston Properties, which developed and owns the adjacent Salesforce Tower and is responsible for operating the gondola.

Peter Back, head of construction for Boston Properties, blamed the delay on a request by its tenant, Salesforce, to eliminate a grove of 20 redwood trees planned to surround the gondola’s base. That required a redesign along with a long list of city approvals.

“Gondolas don’t get built every day,” Back said.

In any event, Boston Properties spokeswoman Helen Han tells us they expect to have the 20-person gondola up and running by Sept. 24, in time for the thousands of conventioneers who will be here for Salesforce’s annual Dreamforce convention and might want to take a ride.

Meanwhile, the transit center’s grand opening will go ahead as planned. But those headed for the park will have to take the stairs or the escalators — which, it is hoped, will be working.

Driving Ms. DiFi: A staffer in U.S. Sen. DianneFeinstein’s San Francisco office was fired a few years back after being linked to Chinese spying in the Bay Area.

According to a Politico Magazine story on Silicon Valley espionage, the Feinstein staffer was suspected of providing political intelligence — but nothing classified — to his handlers, with one former intelligence official telling author Zach Dorfman that the suspected informant was “run” by officials based at the local Chinese Consulate.

A local source who knew about the incident confirmed to us that the FBI showed up at Feinstein’s office in Washington, D.C., about five years ago to alert the then-chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee that her driver was being investigated for possible Chinese spying.

“Dianne was mortified,” said our source, who spoke to us only on condition he not be named.

Besides driving her around when she was in California, the staffer also served as gofer in her San Francisco office and as a liaison to the Asian American community, even attending Chinese Consulate functions for the senator.

According to our source, the intrigue started years earlier when the staffer took a trip to Asia to visit relatives and was befriended by someone who continued to stay in touch with him on subsequent visits.

That someone was connected with the People’s Republic of China’s Ministry of State Security.

“He didn’t even know what was happening — that he was being recruited,” says our source. “He just thought it was some friend.”

“They interviewed him, and Dianne forced him to retire, and that was the end of it,” says our source.

“None of her staff ever knew what was going on,” the source added. “They just kept it quiet.”

The Dellums’ dilemma: One of the highlights of political icon Ron Dellums’ lengthy congressional career was in 1990 when Nelson Mandela thanked the crowd at the Oakland Coliseum for the work that they and Dellums had done to end apartheid in South Africa. Dellums died Monday at age 82.

And one of Dellums’ biggest mistakes came in 2015, when he reluctantly told a crowd packed into an auditorium at Laney College that, “If Ron Dellums running for mayor gives you hope, then let’s get on with it.”

For despite his imposing public persona and ability to sell grand visions, Dellums never fit in with the intense nature of Oakland’s politics.

“He was really a shy individual — most people may not see that as part of him,” said Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson, who spent 15 years as a congressional aide to Dellums.

Oakland Mayor-elect Jean Quan and then-Mayor Ron Dellums participate in a public hearing convened by the state chapter of the NAACP in Oakland in 2010.

Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle 2010

A typical Dellums tactic was to stay out of a political fight until everyone else made their points and then roll in with some anecdote from his days in D.C. that was aimed at getting the opposing parties to talk to each other.

While that might have worked in Congress or City Hall — or even in the 1970s with the Black Panthers — it didn’t work in 2009 in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of Oscar Grant by a BART police officer.

Dellums, who was then Oakland’s mayor, met the protest mob on 14th Street, urging calm and leading them on a walk to City Hall, where he gave a speech.

“I understand that you’ve lost confidence in a process. ... But, listen to me, we are a community of people. We are civilized people. We are a nation of laws,” Dellums told the crowd.

“Let’s leave in a spirit of peace.”

The mob ignored him and continued its rampage.

San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call 415-777-8815, or email matierandross@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matierandross

Whether writing about politics or personalities, Phil Matier has informed and entertained readers for more than two decades about the always fascinating Bay Area and beyond. The blend of scoops, insights and investigative reporting can be found every Sunday, Monday and Wednesday in the Chronicle.